Review of Heaven Can Wait (1978) by Lisa S — 20 Jun 2017

It?s weird when you start watching a movie and somewhere along the way you realize you?ve seen it before. Perhaps even weirder is watching a movie and realizing that you haven?t seen it before, but you?ve seen a remake of it.

Many years ago I saw a silly little movie starring Chris Rock called Down to Earth which is shockingly similar to Heaven Can Wait. In fact it copied this movie so closely that I knew every single plot point before it came up this time around including what would happen at the very end.

This made the viewing experience odd, and also strangely made me less interested. They didn?t play into the fish-out-of-water aspect of this quarterback taking over a multi-millionaire?s business enterprises, instead they quickly transition into him trying to be the quarterback in his new body.

I didn?t connect with that at all, and it lacked the humorous potential they had when a ?dumb? jock becomes a rich guy. I also thought there was a lack of chemistry between Warren Beatty and Julie Christie.

However the story itself was kind of sweet, and it has moments of heart that I appreciated. The football was not shot well at all, which bugged me, as a big fan of the sport. I think I started to enjoy Heaven Can Wait a little more when I decided to take it as a campy (almost farcical) film in a heightened reality.

So many things were happening that made no sense, but when I just let go and laughed at it, the movie was more fun. It?s been too long since I?ve seen the Chris Rock version to compare the two, but I think I?m done with this particular story in film.

Twice was enough for me.